World Chess Championships Juniors/Girls-20 Zagan, Poland, July 13-28, 1997

Follow the progress of Scottish representatives IM Jonathan Rowson and Heather Lang

Commentary round 7: Rowson moves up to within half-a-point of the lead after taking his best scalp to date GM Avrukh (Israel, 2550). After three successive draws against lower graded players the key Avrukh win puts Rowson back on track for a GM norm (or GM title if he become World Junior Champion!)

Commentary round 8: Rowson falls at biggest hurdle to lose his unbeaten record with a defeat by the no.2 seed Vladimir Baklan. Still all is not lost, he is still only one point off the lead and he can savour the way he crunched Avrukh in round 7 (see game score).

Commentary round 9: A draw with a 2420 IM is not normally a bad result ... but in this company that's about as easy a pairing as you are going to get! Note that the player in the lead is ranked 23, 5 below Rowson.

Commentary round 10: A disastrous result with White against a much lower rated opponent - all chance of a GM norm has realistically gone.

Commentary round 11: Rowson stops the rot with a draw. Yesterday's Chinese opponent wasn't so bad afer all - moving up to 8th.

Commentary round 12: Rowson gets his first win since Round 7

Commentary round 13: A very disappointing finish. There has been minimal communication from Poland so there may have been extraneous factors to affect Rowson's performance

World Junior Championship round by round

Round  1: Rowson, Jonathan (2490) 1-0 Nabil, Adel Nasser(Lebanon, ung)
Round  2: Blehm, Pawel (Poland, 2420) 0.5-0.5 Rowson, Jonathan R (2490)
Round  3: Rowson, Jonathan (2490) 1-0 Tihinov, Jurij (Belarus, 2455)
Round  4: Socko, Bartosz (Poland, 2435) 0.5-0.5 Rowson, Jonathan (2490)
Round  5: Banikas, Hristos (Greece, 2450) 0.5-0.5 Rowson, Jonathan (2490)
Round  6: Rowson, Jonathan (2490) 0.5-0.5 Zulfugarli, Magomed (Azerbaijan, 2385)
Round  7: Rowson, Jonathan (2490) 1-0 GM Avrukh, Boris (Israel,2550)
Round  8: Baklan, Vladimir (Ukraine, 2570) 1-0 Rowson, Jonathan (2490) 
Round  9: Gershon, Alik (Israel,2420) 0.5-0.5 Rowson, Jonathan (2490)
Round 10: Rowson, Jonathan (2490) 0-1 FM LI, Shilong (China, 2335)
Round 11: Balogh,Tomas (Slovakia, 2390) 0.5-0.5 Rowson,Jonathan (2490)
Round 12: Rowson, Jonathan (2490) 1-0 IM Delemarre, Jop (Netherlands,2395)
Round 13: Najer, Evgeniy (Russia, 2515) 1-0 Rowson, Jonathan (2490)

Final positions after round 13:

 1 16 IM SHAKED, Tal USA 2500-9.5 29415
 2 17 IM MIRUMIAN, Vigen ARM 2490-9.5 28900
 3 23 IM BANIKAS, Hristos GRE 2450-9.0 69.5
 4  3 GM MOVSESIAN, Sergei CZE 2555-9.0 65.0
 5 19 IM ZHANG, Zhong CHN 2475-9.0 58.0
 6 14 IM NAJER, Evgeniy RUS 2515-8.5 30230
 7 20 IM MACIEJA, Bartlomiej POL 2470-8.5 29710
 8 15 IM IORDACHESCU, Viorel MDA 2500-8.5 29285
 9  7 IM KASIMDZHANOV, Rustam UZB 2545-8.5 29100
10  9 GM KEMPINSKI, Robert POL 2530-8.5 28925
11 11 GM DAO, Thien Hai VIE 2525-8.0 64.0
12  1 GM MOROZEVICH, Alexander RUS 2590-8.0 63.5
13 12 GM GYIMESI, Zoltan HUN 2525-8.0 62.5
14 49 FM LI, Shilong CHN 2335-8.0 55.5
15 21 IM STOJANOVIC, Mihajlo YUG 2470-8.0 49.5
16 30 FM SAVIC, Miodrag R YUG 2430-8.0 46.5
17  2 IM BAKLAN, Vladimir UKR 2570-7.5 59.5
18  8 FM IVANISEVIC, Ivan YUG 2540-7.5 56.5
19 13 IM BAUER, Christian FRA 2525-7.5 54.5
20 27 IM VAN DEN DOEL, Erik NED 2440-7.5 54.0
21 25 IM VAJDA, Levente ROM 2445-7.5 54.0
22  5 GM AVRUKH, Boris ISR 2550-7.5 53.5
23 31    KUNTE, Abhijit IND 2430-7.5 53.0
24 10 IM KRAKOPS, Maris LAT 2530-7.5 52.5
25  4 IM PONOMARIOV, Ruslan UKR 2555-7.0 60.5
26 18 IM ROWSON, Jonathan SCO 2490-7.0 56.5
27  6 IM KACHEISHVILI, Giorgi GEO 2550-7.0 53.5
28 26 FM FLOREAN, Andrei ROM 2445-7.0 53.5
29 28 IM SOCKO, Bartosz POL 2435-7.0 51.5
30 40    BALOGH, Tomas SVK 2390-7.0 51.0
31 52    BAGHERI, Amir IRI 2300-7.0 48.0
32 37 IM DELEMARRE, Jop NED 2395-7.0 47.5
33 36 IM GOLOSHCHAPOV, Alexander UKR 2400-7.0 44.0
34 24 IM MALAKHATKO, Vadim UKR 2445-7.0 44.0
35 33 FM TIHONOV, Jurij BLR 2415-7.0 43.5
36 39    JIROVSKY, Petr CZE 2395-7.0 43.0

A further 42 players with scores below 7
 

(number before name is seeding) (number after tie-break)

FM John Shaw speculates that winner Tal Shaked may have been pre-ordained for a chess career with a parental name choice - in the same way as tennis sensation Martina Hingis was named after Navratilova.

World Junior Championship Girls round by round

Round  1: Zielinska,Marta (Poland, 2335) 1-0 Lang,Heather (2060)
Round  2: Lang,Heather (2060) 0-1 Martinez, Aloidi P (Venezuela, ung)
Round  3: Garcia, Edit (Mexico, ung) 0.5-0.5 Lang, Heather (2060)
Round  4: Lang, Heather (2060) 1-0 Mihalinic, Irena W (Croatia, 2075)
Round  5: Vark, Liina (Estonia, ung) 0.5-0.5 Lang,Heather (2060)
Round  6: Lang,Heather (2060) 0-1 Benderac, Ana (Yugoslavia, 2130)
Round  7: Horn, Emilia (Sweden, ung) 1-0 Lang,Heather (2060)
Round  8: Lang, Heather (2060) 1-0 Alitha Frank (RSA, ung)
Round  9: Arouche, Farida (ALG, ung) 1-0 Lang,Heather (2060)
Round 10: Lang, Heather (2060) 1-0 Murray, Gisela (Puerto Rico, ung)
Round 11: Bekker-Jensen, Anne (Denmark, ung) 1-0 Lang,Heather (2060)
Round 12: Lang,Heather (2060) 0-1 Nikolova, Nevena (Bulgaria, ung)
Round 13: 1 point bye

Harriet Hunt of England took the girls title with a devastating burst of 5.5 in the last six games to finish on 10.5/13. Heather Lang finished on 5/13.

Scottish Games

Rowson and Lang games from Zagan in Chessbase format
Official Zagan WWW page